Fake SAMXON cap in Corsair PSU?

[imp]

Hi,

I´ve just recapped (and fixed, more of this later) my Corsair CX430 V2 power supply, and found one of the capacitors not looking like the rest in the SAMXON GF series. Please see attached photos.

All the GF's are dark green and one is light green. The difference is greater in reality compared to the photos. Also, the bung is different. Might this one (the 3,3mF) be a fake you think...?

NONE of the caps was within limits when tested with a professional bench LCR-measuring device, especially the small Jun Fu 1uF 50V had an ESR of whopping 3 kohms. The SAMXON's were either low on capacitance and/or high ESR. None had bulged. The power supply has been in light use for about eight months 24/7 prior failure. The symptom was that the computer didn´t start at all, only the fans and hard drive spun up.

I´ve recapped it with various Rubycon ZLJ's, Panasonic FM, Suncon WX, ELNA's and UCC for the small caps. That´s what I had available at the time... Want to see the end result to? OK, I´ll attach one more photo

What do you think?

[Rob Northen]

I don't think they are fake. Samxon is cheap shit. They probably just used what ever bongs there where cheapest that week.

[imp]

I don´t like the SAMXON either, I replace them on sight, especially the GF series. But why is one of the capacitors so different from the others?

[lti]

I noticed the same thing with two Samxon caps I removed from a cheap label printer. They actually had the same bung styles shown in the picture (one perfectly flat, one with a raised portion between the leads). I posted the pictures here.

[c_hegge]

Samxon are often inconsistent with their designs, so this comes as no big surprise. If you think the CX series use bad caps, wait for the VS series!

[budm]

Well CrapOn is not any better, both of them has the same value, same series, same diameter, but they are not the same length. May be they ran out of the large cans, or they just fake the smaller one as the big one.

[dmill89]

Originally Posted by c_hegge

Samxon are often inconsistent with their designs, so this comes as no big surprise. If you think the CX series use bad caps, wait for the VS series!

Funny, I remember when all of Corsair's PSUs were made by SeaSonic and were of top quality (even the budget models). Man have they gone downhill fast! First they went to CWT, but still used decent components. Then they started to cheap out on the components, especially in entry level units. What's next? Maybe L&C, ATNG, SunPro, or Yuelin at the rate they are going.

[c_hegge]

Well, I've had a sneak peak at the up and coming Corsair VS450W. It's made by CWT, but the PFC cap and a few of the output filters were made by Jun Fu!

[imp]

Originally Posted by lti

I noticed the same thing with two Samxon caps I removed from a cheap label printer. They actually had the same bung styles shown in the picture (one perfectly flat, one with a raised portion between the leads). I posted the pictures here.

Yup, I recognise that post Inconsistancy in production at it´s "best"

[imp]

Originally Posted by c_hegge

Well, I've had a sneak peak at the up and coming Corsair VS450W. It's made by CWT, but the PFC cap and a few of the output filters were made by Jun Fu!

Wonder what the retail price of the VS series will be then ... The CX430 V2 cost about $50 US here in Sweden and the design itself is pretty decent IMHO; stable voltages on the output, high efficiency and more. I think it will do great after the cap upgrade I made.

If < $50 and what can you expect at all then? It´s brave of Corsair if they still stick to the three year warranty, like with the CX series with perhaps even LOWER quality components.

[b700029]

Originally Posted by budm

Well CrapOn is not any better, both of them has the same value, same series, same diameter, but they are not the same length. May be they ran out of the large cans, or they just fake the smaller one as the big one.

Have you measured their capacitance? The date codes suggest the shorter one was made before the longer one.

[dmill89]

Originally Posted by c_hegge

Well, I've had a sneak peak at the up and coming Corsair VS450W. It's made by CWT, but the PFC cap and a few of the output filters were made by Jun Fu!

Doesn't surprise me much. CWT uses Jun Fu on other units they OEM. Most of the CWT built Thermaltakes have JunFu on the secondary (I've got a TR2 550W that has Rubycons on the primary and JunFu everywhere else, I only use it for testing so I haven't recapped it yet but I probably will when I get board someday). Of course if Corsair goes this route and keeps the 3 year warranty they may end up with a ton of RMAs like Antec did with the SmartPower/TruePower series.

Originally Posted by imp

If < $50 and what can you expect at all then? It´s brave of Corsair if they still stick to the three year warranty, like with the CX series with perhaps even LOWER quality components.

I don't necessarily expect high quality Japanese caps at that price point, but I at least expect some mediocre Taiwanese caps like Teapo, OST, Ltec, or SuScon. Those might not be the best but they at least have a chance of lasting a few years. There is no excuse for using crap like JunFu ("cough" Fuhjyyu) that is virtually guaranteed to fail.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Are you saying that Corsair has model confusions like CoolMax seems to.

(Where V-500 isn't better than its other models, if not worse.)
(And IIRC, the V-500 is a "500 divided-by-2" or roughly that!)

Where VS450 is inferior to CX430?!

Appears that's the same tactic that CoolMax uses.

[mariushm]

The VS450x is 230v only, and I believe they're only to be sold in Asia... but who knows.

Yeah, on these budget power supplies they're gonna cheap out on capacitors.

[Shocker]

Originally Posted by c_hegge

Well, I've had a sneak peak at the up and coming Corsair VS450W. It's made by CWT, but the PFC cap and a few of the output filters were made by Jun Fu!

That's very scary. Perhaps CWT is playing name games with capacitors, hoping people don't know the connection between Fuhjyyu and Jun Fu...

EDIT: So Corsair is the new Antec???

[dmill89]

Originally Posted by Shocker

That's very scary. Perhaps CWT is playing name games with capacitors, hoping people don't know the connection between Fuhjyyu and Jun Fu...

EDIT: So Corsair is the new Antec???

Or I suppose Corsair would be the new old Antec since Antec hasn't used Fuhjyyus, or CWT for that matter, for several years now. In fact Antec's higher end models (HCG and HCP) use 100% Japanese caps now.

It is almost the exact opposite course of events between the two. Antec PSUs started out pretty poor and got progressively better. Corsair PSUs started as some of the best around and have gotten progressively worse.

[Behemot]

I would say people bashing Samxon are just stupid idiots or trolls. It has been proved beyond all doubts Samxon is good brand over the last what, five years? I use them on my own for liek three years now.

The thing is, their GF series is nothing spectacular. On the other hand, neither is Chemi-Cons KZG, right?

[Rob Northen]

Originally Posted by Behemot

I would say people bashing Samxon are just stupid idiots or trolls. It has been proved beyond all doubts Samxon is good brand over the last what, five years? I use them on my own for liek three years now.

The thing is, their GF series is nothing spectacular. On the other hand, neither is Chemi-Cons KZG, right?

There is nothing wrong in beeing cheap.
Just like there is nothing wroong in buying caps of Ebay and then come complain here when you see they are fake ...

[Behemot]

Well I buy only caps with good enough photos from eBaywhere I would recognize them being fakes. Last time boguht 1000 of 1000uF Rubycons MBZ. Capacitance still arround 750 uF what is pretty good considering they have been unused since they have been made back in 2005

An oh, no, Samxon's are not cheap. Comparable Chemi-Cons are much cheaper from Digi-Key. The thing is, I can order for as much as 200 USD only like once a year to not pay another 70 USD for postage

[ben7]

imp, you might want to replace the Elna's you put in there, Elna is a good mfg, but their caps are not rated for low esr, and high temps.

-Ben